The Orissa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday sprang a surprise by announcing that it would not support any Congress-sponsored or Independent candidate contesting the Rajya Sabha polls and abstain from voting.
The decision dealt a serious blow to the main Opposition Congress which was planning to grab at least one of the three Rajya Sabha seats that are going to fall vacant on July 1 with the support of the BJP.
A candidate needs at least 37 first preference votes to get elected. However, the Congress has only 27 members in the 147-member state legislative Assembly. The BJP has got six members plus an associated member.
The Congress was also expecting support of at least three of the six Independent members.
“After consultation with our national leaders, we have decided to abstain from voting. We will not support any Congress supported or independent candidate as he would have inclination towards that party,” BJP state president Jual Oram told reporters here in the evening.
Sources in the BJP said the party decided to abstain from voting as it feared that two of its members might indulge in cross-voting in of favour the ruling BJD’s third candidate. The party also apprehended that any disciplinary action against the two legislators would further aggravate the situation and lead to vertical split in the party.
The sources added that the party had already decided to support the candidature of journalist Rabi Das.
Meanwhile, the confusion continued to reign in the Congress camp as the legislatures could not reach on a consensus on candidate selection. Although many of the legislators backed industrialist Tara Patnaik’s selection as party candidate, others opposed it saying that Mr Patnaik would not be able to garner support of the BJP and Independents because of his strong Congress links. Latest reports said the CLP meeting was on to find out a “non-controversial” and “non-political’ personality to field as independent candidate.